Seattle Considers Law to Ban Discrimination Against People with Criminal Records

From [HERE] Seattle's civil-rights laws already forbid discrimination in housing and hiring on the basis of race, age, sex and gender identity. But the city is considering adding a new group of residents to protect: People with criminal records.

The city has drafted a proposal that would limit how landlords and employers use criminal histories to weed out applicants. Instead of being able to reject applicants solely because a criminal record exists -- which social workers say is often the case -- businesses would be required to more closely scrutinize someone's history for work and housing. Specifically, the proposal would make it illegal for employers and landlords to deny an applicant who:

• Was arrested or charged, but never convicted.
• Has a conviction that was vacated.
• Has a juvenile conviction that was sealed.

"Employers and landlords would not be able to impose a blanket, across-the-board 'no criminal backgrounds/no felons' policy,' " Seattle's Office for Civil Rights said in a fact sheet about its proposal, which would have to be approved by the City Council.

"Adding protections to end discrimination based solely on arrest or conviction records is one strategy to help support people's re-entry, and to decrease the likelihood of their re-offending."

Tasked with enforcing anti-discrimination laws, the office hosted a forum on the topic Wednesday night with the Seattle Human Rights Commission and City Councilmember Bruce Harrell.

The issue has been controversial, eliciting cheers from advocacy groups like Columbia Legal Services and the Tenants Union of Washington State and boos from landlords.

Jonathan Grant, executive director of the Tenants Union, said 28 percent of King County adults have a Washington state criminal record - a large group facing hurdles in work and housing.

But because African Americans are disproportionately more likely to be incarcerated that the general population, a "seemingly neutral" no-criminal-history policy has a targeted racial impact, he said.

"(The proposal) is not creating a protected class of people with a criminal record," Grant said. "It's requiring a landlord to change a categorical 'no' to having to use their discrimination to determine that a person is a danger to their building."

He said many people with a minor record, such as a single DUI, are often rejected as tenants and end up in substandard units.

"I think it's important to note that as a society, is there a practical place for redemption?" he said. "You have somebody who committed a crime once -- they made a mistake. You take away their housing and employment opportunities, and there's enormous recidivism. It's a self-fulfilling prophesy."

The proposal would allow for discretion. Employers and landlords would have the right to reject someone with a record threatens neighbors, co-coworkers and public safety, the city said.

It said, for example, someone with a record of DUIs applying for a driving job wouldn't be protected. Similarly, the law wouldn't protect an applicant whose conviction has a "direct relationship" to a potential housing unit or job, such as a former embezzler who wants to work in a bank.

Despite those allowances, Sean Martin, a spokesman for the Rental Housing Association of Puget Sound, said many tenants and landlords still worry about decreasing public safety and any associated liability.

"If we were to rent to an offender, and something happens to a neighbor or another property, potentially we're liable," he said. Plus, the need to justify a reason for rejecting an applicant with a blemished record puts landlords in a "defensive position," he said.

For Martin, the proposal had a lot of unanswered questions.

Would it be illegal to reject an applicant with several DUIs in a building with kids who play in a parking lot? Could a landlord reject an applicant with a fraud conviction who might bounce a check?

"We understand the issue of getting ex-offenders employment and housing," Martin said. "There's other ways to address that."